43 thoughts on “Better Day, Apparently”

Oh my goodness me, how adorable they both are! Though in this instance the rattie is taking the better picture, heh. Kitty looks like he just got his whiskers messed with, or is going to sneeze, or snorted something REALLY funky into his Jacobson’s organ.

The rat part, I mean. (Sorry I don’t like rodents.) Not too fond of cats either.

Also you’d think I’d know by now not to read the comments on Feministing when they’re discussing FA and body positivity. I give Samhita credit for trying but that place takes too many Sanity Watcher’s points from me. *headdesk*

Kate, I really don’t see the difference between this LOLcat and the Cute Overload post that pissed you off earlier. Am I missing the distinction here? Both images are supporting the idea of dieting, right?

However, I’m still having a shitty week (too much business travel and too much time spent on the phone, and then some personal stuff to boot), and to make things worse, I’m starting to let that attitude show at work. Not like mouthing off to people, but I’m definitely not my usual self. And I’m sure nobody at work appreciates me being a grouch.

I clicked over to puppy cam fir the first time ever and it is improving my morale a bit. So is dreaming about the bell pepper casserole I’m going to be making for dinner.

Well, actually, this one is *also* about correcting figure “flaws” by dieting, and I also think the Cute Overload cats and bunnies would have been cute, sans captions. The reason that this is acceptable, by the blogger’s own admission, is that she is in a better mood today.

Kate, I really don’t see the difference between this LOLcat and the Cute Overload post that pissed you off earlier.

Honestly, half the difference is that I’m in a better mood today. (ETA: hadn’t seen Wildflower’s comment when I wrote this. So please note that it is ONLY half the reason.) But this seemed to me like a more effective satire of human foibles — of which dieting is clearly one — than the CO post. It’s clearly making fun of the diet mentality. That’s the difference.

I just wanted to say thanks to Kate, FJ, and SM for all they do to keep SP going, even (and especially) during times when they are drained and busy with their lives. What’s going on at Shakesville has me feeling all warm and fuzzy thinking about the wonderful online community you guys have created. Thank you.

The difference I see between this and the earlier pictures is that, to me, this kitty’s diet is more like being vegan for moral reasons rather than to lose weight. The cat doesn’t eat the rat because it is a living creature/fellow pet/member of the household.

I’m in a better mood today too! But this picture made me sad anyway, because the rat looks so much like my beloved pet rat from high school, Mortimer. (Full name: Mortimer Sneezy-poo Textbook. As I recall, I named him after what my high school chem teacher called “the Mortimer Textbook,” by which he aptly meant the one of two textbooks we used for class that was authored by someone named Mortimer. The Sneezy-poo was just because those were two favorite activities of Mortimer’s.)

Oh, hey! Did I ever tell y’all about the two weeks I’ve just had? I think on the other thread I threatened to. Okay, folks: I am NOT lying, but the last two weeks have included:

1. An academic conference with my husband, kids, and parents in tow. (They were making a mini vacation out of it, not attending my conference.)
2. Five conference interviews, not all of which went well.
3. A bout of scarlet fever (my older son, not me)
4. A hit-and-run side swipe of our car that took out the mirror.
5. The death of someone I was in the very very very very very early stages of getting to know but who had promise as a friend. (I hope it goes without saying that these are not in order of importance. Really I almost hate to throw that one in there because it’s just a different order of magnitude than the others. A true tragedy — really neat lady, had a husband and young son… Just terrible. The rest of this comment is just sort of grumpy bitching, but if you’ll permit me a serious moment: thoughts and prayers for her family would be very much appreciated, I’m sure.)
6. Our nanny being hospitalized for four days and missing two weeks of work because of food poisoning from some raw ahi tuna.
7. The older son’s daycare being closed due to carbon monoxide.
8. A shit ton more job applications, fellowship applications, and letters of recommendation for former undergraduate students who are applying to study abroad.
9. Spilled coffee on the laptop.
10. Multiple fights with my spouse in which the “d” word came up. (Really, though… given all that had been going on, I think it would be surprising if we hadn’t had a few terrible fights.)

On the other hand, Obama was elected and my local Weight Watchers disappeared, so there’s that. And now Time-Machine has a plan for fatties to buy up real estate and then kick out all the Weight Watchers, so overall I’m pleased.

I think I read it more like Piffle above – it’s not that kitty is trying to lose weight, it’s that kitty has sworn off rats for some other reason like vegetarianism. And I also considered a 2nd option that Kate presented – that it’s making fun of a dieting mentality. Unlike the “fixing flaws” series the other day, this one is a little more open to interpretation.

Or you know, it could be that I’m just joining Kate in discrediting FA by laughing at a picture on CuteOverload that *might* be pro-dieting. After all, I can’t spend all my time just being a bad feminist – it gets boring.

And FWIW, in my experience and that of everyone I know, academic interviews are a deep mysterious cosmic thing and every job someone gets is invariably from an interview they thought they blew or happenned in the mist of some craziness. . ..

I could see how people might not think this picture was funny, but I sort of took it like the favorite comic of the rhino on a treadmill trying to be a unicorn. I mean, cats tend to eat mice and this one is (seemingly) trying not to.

Like Birds Anonymous–BA–in that old Sylvester and Tweety cartoon (the thought of which keeps me going on bad days).

@A Sarah: Have you read Mama, PhD? I can’t remember if you have kids, but even if you don’t, the stories in this anthology can be horrible and uplifting…but most of all, they remind one what the soul of the academic market looks like. It certainly set my priorities straight.

atiton- Oh, thank you for mentioning that book. I have spent an hour this morning googling things like “tenure and pregnancy” “when do female faculty have kids” and the like. Seriously, thank you so much.

Oh, and atiton, I really need to read that. I have been telling myself that it was savvy of me to have kids in grad school, rather than on the tenure clock, but now I’m not so sure. I’m on the market with a thin CV in an economic downturn, and faculty in my department vaguely remember me as the oft-pregnant one who wasn’t around much.

As in so many things, until men get pregnant it seems like it’s going to be intractably unfair.

I said that letting one’s *personal mood swing* affect what is or is not acceptable to one’s *social cause* does “discredit your cause somewhat.”

Somehow other commenters view this as “Hey, Kate, your moods have destroyed Fat Acceptance!” which is analogous to “single-handedly destroy[ing] feminism” and “No one needed fat acceptance, anyway, so don’t worry about it” and “fat acceptance is really just a bunch of pissed off whales too lazy to exercise 10 times a week and lose weight.”

Wildflower, I think it might have been that the words “discredit your cause” seemed out of proportion when applied to the posting of a lolcat picture. Might have put people off a bit, not that I can speak for anyone else, natch. (I didn’t see the Cute Overload pic, so I may have missed some context here.)

Wildflower, in all seriousness, my biggest issue with “discredit your cause” is that it’s not MY cause. It’s a cause I believe in, but if I mess up (and I still disagree that I did here, but that’s not even relevant), there are literally more than a hundred other bloggers, and thousands of other people involved in the movement, who will be more of a credit to the cause than I am that day. So I’m really not worried about undermining the message with one lolcat blogpost.

The difference seemed pretty clear to me–the idea that a cat would refrain from eating a rat because of a diet, and even be on a diet is preposterous. This seems like satire. I thought the other could be seen as mocking those obnoxious “flatter every shape!” magazine articles, but I can see how it would be hurtful; the comments themselves were about covering up flab to appear thinner or enhancing svelteness. Maybe I’m just reading too much into this!

@kristin and A Sarah: You are both very welcome. Some of the stories in that book haunt me and some just made me furious. Women and mothers come in all creeds, shapes, sizes and attitudes. That book showcases a lot of different kinds of them.